He thrust the notepad into Viola’s face as proof.

‘Great,’ she said, pushing it away. ‘But you’re not being weird about it, are you?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You’re not, like, stalking her?’

‘But that’s what you told me to do.’

‘No, I said…’

What had she said? Viola did not want to spar with Michael, have him demand, if you’re such an expert on all this, better show me what info you’ve collected so far.

‘It’s fine,’ she said. ‘You’re doing great.’

‘You told me I should follow Leah so that you could speak to the girls alone.’

‘Yeah, I know.’ Viola began to walk faster.

‘So, you could get in on whatever they were doing and –’

‘Yes!’ she said. ‘I know!’

Then, the skies opened, instantaneously, as they were wont to do, and Viola had never been more pleased. Mother Nature was playing for her team. She would get soaked right through to her underwear before she reached the cover of home, but it would stop Michael following her there.

She started to jog. Michael, madly, joined in.

‘So, how’s it all going?’ he said. ‘What have you found?’

There was a great flash of lightning and that, at last, brought him to a halt.

Everyone on the island was scared of the electrical storms, the swift, metallic ferociousness of them. Viola had witnessed a strike at sea not long after they’d arrived – a pink zag of light across the water – but it was land these firebolts were really after, or people, a means to earth themselves.

Was this support from Mother Nature, she asked herself, or a scolding for her inaction? Stop hiding in the ferns and do what you must, or else I will take aim!

‘I’m really hitting it off with them!’ Viola called back to Michael as the thunder sounded. ‘I have so much to tell you.’

She began to run, full pelt for home, because there was another reason lightning came, and that was to strike down liars.

Kingdomtide 2017

KINGDOMTIDE 2017

And so, it came to pass – three became four. The red-haired girl joined the Eldest Girls’ number.

The women of the community had wished for it; they couldn’t say that they hadn’t.

Four corners, they’d talked of, four pillars, a wholesome union of love, faith, hope and luck – the allusions were endless. This would make the girls a balanced group, strong, with no need for their illicit rituals. Though what these women failed to see was that their belief in numerology was an illicit ritual in itself. It could not be trusted, and sure enough, as soon as three became four, doubt made its way in, as slippery as the eel.